President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said late Thursday that Turkey and Greece will build a future on the basis of a win-win principle either by hand-to-hand or by mutual steps, or even by investments in third countries jointly carried out by the investors from the two countries.Late Thursday, an official dinner was given in honor of President Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulous and his wife Vlasia Pavlopoulous at the Presidential Palace in Athens.

During his speech at the dinner, President Erdoğan expressed his pleasure for being the first Turkish president to visit Greece in 65 years. Before Erdoğan, President Celal Bayar was the last Turkish head of state to pay an official visit to Greece in November 1952.

Stating that the two countries now emphasize the importance of business unity in political, military, economic, cultural and tourism fields, Erdoğan said he met with some Turkish citizens who have investments in Greece and received their opinions about the investments in the country.

"Of course, when I hear their satisfaction, we are also talking about what we can do and what more can be done for the future," he said.

The president also added that the solidarity of the countries is of much greater significance during this critical period when the region is experiencing serious problems.

Commercial relations between Turkey and Greece have gained significant momentum and the bilateral trade volume doubled between 2010 and 2014, reaching $5.6 billion by the end of 2014.

However, according to the Turkish data, the bilateral trade volume in 2016 totaled $2.6 billion.

In 2012, during the second Turkish-Greek High Level Cooperation Council (HLCC) meeting, $10 billion in trade volume was declared a common goal and both sides committed to exploring ways and means to achieve this target.

The stock of direct investments from Greece reached $6.1 billion by the end of 2016, according to information obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Greek investors, apart from the financial sector, operate in the information technology (IT), agricultural applications, packaging, plastics, pharmacy, cosmetics, fisheries, tourism, and construction sectors in Turkey.

Direct Turkish investments in Greece, including the investments via other European countries, amount to approximately $500 million.

Turkish investors mostly focus on investing in marinas, ports and the overall tourism sector in Greece. Furthermore, Ziraat Bank has branches in Athens, Xanthi, Komotini and Rhodes.